By Aidan
February 2025

In The Little Prince, the narrator offers us his perspective on grown ups:

“When you tell them that you have made a new friend, they never ask you any questions about essential

matters. They never say to you,

‘What does his voice sound like? What games does he love

best? Does he collect butterflies?’ Instead, they demand: ‘How old is he? How many brothers

has he? How much does he weigh? How much money does his father make?’ Only from these

figures do they think they have learned anything about him.”

​

In such a small excerpt, Antoine de Saint Exupéry eloquently critiques our society’s

values, while raising the fundamental question: what is the “essential” in life?1 Although our

diverse cultures and personalities mean that our specific values may differ, there is a high

degree of shared common experiences amongst humans which point towards a broad answer

to this question. Saint-Exupéry thinks, as do I, that the ‘essential’ parts of life are not found in

numbers, but in delicate, beautiful, ephemeral, invisible, and loving things.

​

Not only is the backbone of modern society built on numbers—logic, measurements, and

counting—but so, it seems, is our work in the Biodiversity Literacy VIP. As naturalists in the

Biodiversity VIP, we categorize [species], count [specimens], generalize [identify], weigh, and

analyze data. If we interpret the natural world through numbers aren’t we no better than the

grown ups in The Little Prince, in fact. In our work, have we completely overlooked the

“essential” in life? Clearly this is alarming—no one wants to be as bland and horrible as

grownups—so how can we carry out our work efficiently while still focusing on “essential

matters”?

​

Firstly, and most straightforward-ly, it is important to recognize that we still live in the

society that Antoine de Saint-Exupéry critiqued in 1943. There is a premium placed on numbers,

and this is not wholly a bad thing. Would it be even possible to conserve and protect biodiversity

without this “grown-up” empirical approach? I doubt anyone would listen to us—and perhaps for

good reason—if we did not have numbers to show.

​

Secondly, although we do study biodiversity through a quantitative lens, the Biodiversity

VIP is unique in that it also places a premium on “essential matters.

” Of course, it is more difficult to explain this without numbers or words—you sort of need to be within the VIP to

understand—but I will try my best. As naturalists in the VIP, sometimes we need to count and

generalize, but we never reduce all the beauty inherent to biodiversity into cold, hard numbers.

For example, I see the “essential” in every birdwalk that we go on—the tides, the wind, and

sometimes the rain, the sunrises, the changing of the season, and the calls and peculiarities of

birds. I also see the “essential” in the people that are a part of the VIP.  Everyone, with all their

lovely quirks, only contributes to this project for one or two years. We dedicate time, love,(1) creativity and effort to something that we may never see come to fruition (the fight to protect

biodiversity is never-ending). This—a commitment to save something that you love—is a

reflection of the “essential” in life.

​

The Biodiversity Literacy VIP strikes at the heart of the “essential” in its mission of

engaging others with nature. There is a wisdom that nature imparts upon us that can only

(maybe obviously) be experienced in the outdoors. I’d call this wisdom awe.

​

Awe doesn’t exist in a vacuum—it always exists in response to something “so vast or

powerful that they threaten to overwhelm the human individual or reduce his existence on this

planet to a mere speck” (2) Awe, turns out to be quite an important feeling, too. Studies suggest an

evolutionary benefit to experiencing awe, as well as positive links between awe and humility,

critical thinking, positive mood, connectivity, satisfaction, and scientific creativity.(3) Importantly to the Biodiversity Literacy VIP, most people associate a feeling of “awe” with an experience

outdoors.

​

If awe has so many links to wellbeing and creativity, why is access to awe not

considered a human right? As a VIP that is centered around increasing engagement with the

outdoors, the Biodiversity Literacy VIP has a role to play in sharing access to awe—this

fundamental human right—with others. This wisdom—being in awe of the world (5)—is, to me, an

“essential matter,” something that I’d hope Antoine de Saint-Exupéry would agree with.

​

The narrator in The Little Prince remarks remorsefully: “Perhaps I am a little like the grown-ups. I have had to grow old.” Like the narrator in The Little Prince we must all grow old. But the child within us (the Little Prince) does not—we don’t need to act dimwitted and daft, or lose sight of “essential matters” just because time says that we’re 20 or 40 or 70. We can grow old and still hold on to the wisdom that is inherent to every human. And, of course, be in awe of

the world and of each other, and make it our mission to share this awe with others.

​

Appendix 

(1)

The question of “what is essential in life” is different from “what is the purpose of life.” The former places

emphasis on enjoyment and satisfaction, while the latter frames purpose as a means to an end. However,

fully addressing this difference is not in the scope of this blog.

​

(2)

Schopenhauer: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schopenhauer-aesthetics/#BeaSub

​

(3)

https://ggsc.berkeley.edu/images/uploads/GGSC-JTF- White- Paper-Awe - FINAL.pdf

​

(4)

Ibid

​

(5)

I’d hope it is implied, but the “world” is everything that is out-of-doors.

​

​

​

​